Help Where to start?

[alexinanutshell]

Hello guys i'm new here, My name is alex im 13 but just cos i'm young dont let it stop you from helping me please. i was hoping for some advice.

i'm seriously considering studying japanese, but really, i dont know where to start.

My school doesn't teach it and i'm about to do my gcse's so im hoping to start properly next year-ish.

But like i said i dont know where to start. what to do. can i effectively teach myself or would it be absolutely necessary for a teacher/tutor?
Etc. Etc

Please help, thanks.

Alex

 

[Tomii515]

Yes, it's possibly. I started teaching myself Japanese when I was 12, and now it's been 3 years. I started out really cocky and annoying, and hopefully I'm not the same now haha. But yeah, you can do it on your own. You just need to be aware that it's going to be hard work. You'll need to right material and be persistent.

You have to want it bad. And you'll need a lot of time.

Know how difficult it is before you start studying so you dont waste any of you time.

Good luck!

 

[Putrefaction]

1) Get Genki Vol 1.
2) Ask a lot of questions here.
3) Go!

 

[FrustratedDave]

Hello guys i'm new here, My name is alex im 13 but just cos i'm young dont let it stop you from helping me please. i was hoping for some advice.

Sorry I don't help anyone under the age of 18, you should go somewhere else.
Just kidding, buy some beginner Japanese books, they usually are written in romaji so it will make things easy until you learn hiragana ect.

 

[alexinanutshell]

thanks for the help guys

 

[alexinanutshell]

Genki 1

Im not sured which Genki it is. Theres one where it says Genki 1 Workbook and another where it is Genki 1:An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese or somethin glike that any help? or like a link to the page on amazon or something?

 

[Jericho Desu]

Im not sured which Genki it is. Theres one where it says Genki 1 Workbook and another where it is Genki 1:An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese or something like that any help? or like a link to the page on amazon or something?

Genki 1:An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese is the one you want, the workbook and CDs are the add-ons which you can also get, but I've never used the workbooks, CDs may be helpful but just get the main book first.

Amazon.co.uk: Buying Choices: Genki 1: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese 1

You don't need a brand new one (its like ≫ 5...) so get one of those ≫??0 ones (with ≫??.75 shipping)

 

[alexinanutshell]

thanks for that

 

[Haruspex]

Being the One Man Anti-Genki Battalion I will vote for Ultimate Japanese.
And the reason is that it does not create a whole bloody soap for the hell knows what purpose (allegedly learning). And the lack of illustrations also makes it more serious.

 

[alexinanutshell]

ok but for now i think im gonna go with the genki cos yeah im just a beginner so i suppose i dunno but yeah whatever. ill use genki and then maybe move on to something harder or more serious when i get better.

 

[Jericho Desu]

I'd like to mention something though dude (should have put this in my first post) but before you go buying anything, you could spend a couple of months learning Japanese online, there are tons of resources online like

Teach Yourself Japanese

I say this because your young so you should find out if you can really dedicate yourself to learning this language before spending any money you know?

 

[alexinanutshell]

ok thanks man, mum'll probably buy the books for me anyways lol. shes kinda happy i wanna do it cos she wanted to be a translator and thats what i wanna do so yeah.

 

[Jericho Desu]

Aww thats awesome dude :woot:

Work hard and make her proud!

 

[Mycernius]

Learn the hiragana an the katakana as soon as possible, it will help. That's about as much as I will say. I'm a lazy git with learning, but I got these pretty fast.

 

[alexinanutshell]

sounds good cos im pretty lazy too, heh.